badgerx16

LOL at the idea of a 'left wing' Government in the States. I accept the basic point about the mortgage books, but the problem with 'toxicity' was not simply down to the lending practice, it was the various financial institutions with their clever trading practices and repetitive incestuous repackaging and reselling of debt as an asset, knowing it was potentially valueless, and finding more and more convoluted methods of hiding the true content of the 'futures' they were trading with each other, until eventually they were exchanging what was effectively just an A4 sheet of paper, yet placing a 'value' of billions upon it. Once they actually stopped the merry-go-round, and tried to add up what they as companies were genuinely worth, they found a bl00dy great black hole, they then ran crying to the US Treasury pleading for public money to bail them out. It was all reminiscent, though on a far larger scale, of the Lloyds names, who were quite happy to take the profits during the good times, ( and hoped to minimise the tax liability on their gains ), but asked for Government help when their investments started showing a loss.

What was the name of the old flea pit cinema on Above Bar, near the junction with Commercial Road ?

It's not that bankers are 'corrupt', or that the arguments against are founded on jealousy; I have a close relative who is married, and both he and his wife 'retired' at 40, in exactly the circumstances you depict. It's the system that permits the selling on, and re-selling, of ever more obscure packages of debt, founded on extremely dubious valuations and mortgage books, such that the merchant banks themselves ultimately have no ******* clue as to whether thay actually have an asset or not. The collapse of Lehman's was entrirely due to the fact they had an asset book with a face value of tens of billions of dollars, which in fact was worth the square root of bug ger all. It's the unregulated system that employs some extremely clever, and morally suspect, mathematics whizzkids to generate ever more complex trading algorithms, which nobody aside from Einstein has a chance of figuring out. The accountants and auditors just hadn't a clue what they were looking at, it was all taken on trust. It's a system that builds business out of lending mortgages for inflated valuations to people whose incomes dictate they never have a chance of meeting the monthly payments. They were writing fairy tales and printing Monopoly money.

I used to live 30 yards from Glen Eyre School, and 2 of my sisters were "GE girls", ( which one were you ? )

As an infrequent ( ) visitor now, I find some of the 'familiar' road layouts from my younger days have been obliterated. I have had particular problems with Thomas Lewis way, Lances Hill ( and whatever the new bits at the top are called ), and Six Dials, ( changed a lot since I used to visit my Grandad there ).

As a 'spud', I held an antipathy towards Bellemoor

Or sometimes just inventing myths that appear on balance sheets as fact :smt017

Now this truly IS a good post !! :smt041:smt041:smt041

Problem is, does George Osborne have it ?

It is certainly the coldest.

From my position, Oldham is technically south. Just don't fall into the trap of assuming 'oop north' is a single entity; on the dark side of t'Pennines you get the Yorkies, Mackems, and Geordies, on God's side you get the Lankys and the Cumbrians. In my judgement, start at the Dee, follow the Mersey before skirting south of Manc and across the Peak District, ( Cheshire and southern Derbyshire are part of the Midlands ), and then take a line across the south of Tykeland to the southern bank of the Humber to mark the 'border', keeping Lincolnshire as the northern part of eastern England. Here endeth the lesson.:cool:

The taint is always with you, it can never be expunged.

Cafe Direct coffee, FairTrade tea ( 'normal', green, and roibus ), free range eggs ( during the shorter winter days when my own hens don't lay ), and free range chicken meat. Also, my wife won't buy New Zealand lamb due to the fact that a lot of it is butchered in Halal style, which she feels is unnecessarily cruel. If I do buy bananas they will be fair trade also. I also do not hug trees, ( though I have several in my gardens front and rear, hopefully got enough space that I don't need an allotment ), my wellies are black, and I use rechargeable batteries wherever possible - for which I would choose a supplier with hydro-electric generating capacity if I could get it. ( And I drive a diesel; good or bad you can decide, but that was a purely economic decision. Wouldn't have a Prius if they were giving them away ). Wish I did have a ( Welsh ) Cob ( or 2 ), and at the same time wish I didn't have my mortgage.

Over 20,000 lower grade NHS staff are from the Philippines, and approx 35,000 are from the eastern EU states, probably all doing the 'dirty' jobs that the "workshy" think are beneath their dignity, or paid less than they are willing / able to accept.

But what would happen to all those offenders who are being sentenced to 'community service' by the courts, particularly now as there is a recommendation that anybody whose offence carries a tariff of less than 12 months should be kept out of our overcrowded jails ?

Watched Alan Johnson on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday, of all the Labour front benchers, I think he is the best and most credible by a long way; and it's a hoot every time he says he has absolutely no interest in the party leadership.

Luvverly

Because, if you are in a car or train crash, they will take you to an NHS hospital.

:smt038:smt038:smt038 May I suggest we replace our political system with benevolent despotism, with me at the helm

Well, at least 48 million died in a war the Fascists started, plus about 500 thousand in Spain, so you are a bit short there. Both political extremes are equally malign and destructive.

But I thought that the capitalists needed cheap foreign labour so that they could cut staff costs to the bone ?

Presumably the vegetarian option ( Lib-Dems ) just doesn't do it for you ?

Curved Air - Back Street Luv

David Cameron is a sham, a veneer laid over the true face of Conservative dogma. Elections these days are not about politics, they are about image, and as it looks like the Labour Party will persist with GB, the Tories will win hands down.

So, as someone with an obviously 'informed' opinion, is cutting the numbers down to 3 a false economy, in that it means the deterrent could no longer be effectively maintained.